Pakistani Chickpea & Pistachio Fudge (Besan Ki Barfi)

Written on 14 August, 2013

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Besan Ki what?? The name, yes the name. And it’s precisely the name that drew my attention to it in the first place and intrigued me enough to give this traditional Pakistani treat a try. If you had come across a sweet called “barfi”, wouldn’t you have wanted to try it for that very reason? Of course you would have! Daring adventures, culinary challenges…yes, we’re of like mind. And all I can say for Barfi is thank goodness I gave it a try! Let me tell you, I am SO happy I made it because it. is. good. And I mean really good! So good that I immediately followed up the first batch with a second!

If you don’t try this, you’ll never know what you’re missing, and trust me – you’ll want to know what you’re missing! I mean…you won’t want to miss it!

This gem has become a favorite little treat in my family. I even brought some over to my parents. I didn’t say anything, just asked them to try it. They each took a bite, heads bowed in silent contemplation. They took another couple of chews and raised their eyebrows. They raised their heads and looked at me, eyes enlarged and sparkling, and nodded in approval with an enthusiastic “wow, that’s really good!” and asked me what it was. At that point I gleefully revealed the name and we all eagerly inhaled a second piece. This experience was repeated, almost to a tee, with my brother and my husband. You think I’m dramatizing all this, don’t you? Well, I’ll tell you what. Don’t take my word for it. Instead, make and try it for yourself and you’ll see what I mean!

While a very popular sweet treat in India and Pakistan, it’s virtually unknown here in the U.S.. Well I say it’s time to change that! Make way for Besan Ki Barfi, an addictive Pakistani Chickpea and Pistachio Fudge!

You’ll need some gram/chickpea/garbanzo bean flour (all the same thing, just different names). I picked some up at an Indian store in Seattle, but you can easily find it online. (Another ingredient you’ll need that can be a little challenging to find in stores is green cardamom. Again, readily available online.)

Chickpea flour has a slight yellowish tint to it.

Place the chickpea flour in a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat and stir constantly for 3-4 minutes until toasted – it will only very slightly darken in color.

Whisk in the ghee or butter. Ghee is a fantastic Indian product and is what is used to make authentic Besan Ki Barfi. You can find some excellent quality ghee here.

The mixture will be clumpy and on the dry side initially. Continue to stir and the ghee or butter will begin to separate from the flour and become more liquidy.

Continue to stir constantly as the mixture simmer and darkens in color, about 3-4 minutes. This process is like making a roux for a gravy or sauce.

Pour the mixture into a bowl and set aside.

Add the sugar and water to the same skillet.

Bring to a simmer and stir frequently for about 5 minutes until the mixture is syrupy.

You’ll know the syrup is ready if it passes the “two thread” test: Take some of the mixture between your thumb and index fingers (blow it first to cool it a little!) and if two threads form when you pull your fingers apart, it’s ready.

Return the flour mixture to the skillet and stir it into the sugar mixture. Return the mixture to a simmer for another 3-4 minutes.

Next we’re going to add the green cardamom. You can buy cardamom already ground, which is more convenient, but freshly ground always yields more flavor. Just pound it in a plastic baggie or grind it in a coffee or spice grinder. A little challenging to find in stores, but you can easily buy green cardamom here. Cardamom is a necessary spice to have on hand anyway if you cook Indian food.

Seeds of two green cardamom pods, ground (depending on their size, about ¼ teaspoon or a little less, ground)

1 tablespoons chopped pistachio nuts

Instructions

Place the chickpea flour in a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat and stir constantly for 3-4 minutes until toasted - it will only very slightly darken in color.

Whisk in the ghee or butter. The mixture will be clumpy and on the dry side initially. Continue to stir and the ghee or butter will begin to separate from the flour and become more liquidy. Continue to stir constantly as the mixture simmer and darkens in color, about 3-4 minutes. Think of this process like making a roux for a gravy or sauce. Pour the mixture into a bowl and set aside.

Add the sugar and water to the same skillet. Bring to a simmer and stir frequently for about 5 minutes until the mixture is syrupy. You'll know the syrup is ready if it passes the "two thread" test: Take some of the mixture between your thumb and index fingers (blow it first to cool it a little!) and if two threads form when you pull your fingers apart, it's ready.

Return the flour mixture to the skillet and stir it into the sugar mixture. Return the mixture to a simmer for another 3-4 minutes.

Stir in the cardamom and pistachios.

Pour the mixture into a small freezer-safe container that can serve as a mold (like 6x6 or even a little smaller). Sprinkle the remaining pistachios over the fudge and gently press them down into the mixture. Freeze the fudge for 1-2 hours then remove. Slice the fudge according to your size preference.

27 Responses

This sounds wonderful, but oh, the calories! And the carbs! Some day, perhaps I’ll try it? I am a big fan of Indian food, and have gotten to try the cuisine in 4 different states in India. Sometimes I wish I didn’t care about being healthy… :-)

Oh, I share your pain! Drat being health-conscious! I have to allow myself the occasional indulgence though – for sanity sake. I just try to be faithful about exercise and eating healthy most of the time. That’s one of the reasons I cut the recipe in half from the original. One or two little pieces of this are actually quite satisfying (although I would gladly eat more!). You are so lucky to have been able to travel that extensively throughout India! What were some of your favorite dishes? I LOVE Indian food, too.

Actually, my India travel was ports on cruises. My favorite thing I remember is the dessert we had in Mangalore, kasha halwa made with local pumpkin, prepared with sugar/ green grams payasum (that’s how the menu reads). We did a cooking class in Mormugao, where everything was good. Also had a lunch buffet in Chennai (don’t remember much about that except I liked it) and a wonderful dinner in Mumbai (those last two were in 2008). I really liked the Rajasthani food – it was different from the more southern cuisines.

If I make your wonderful recipe I’ll have to keep it well hidden somewhere so I don’t eat it all at once and so my husband doesn’t also – he has a massive sweet tooth. :-)

Oh, that all sounds like so much fun, jesusan! The kasha halwa sounds positively delightful. I think I may experiment with making some soon.

Your self-control and dedication to good health is commendable and deserves to be rewarded…how about a fresh batch of Besan Ki Barfi? :) Yes, just space it out, go on a few Summer evening strolls with hubby, and you’ll be just fine.

If you try the kasha halwa I will be really looking forward to seeing the recipe. It was a delightful dessert.

Kimberly, you are a pusher and enabler of the first order! You rival the servers on cruise ships… (that’s actually a compliment, because they are really a lot of fun, and very good at what they do, as are you.) Spacing a real treat out and keeping it hidden from myself will tax all my creativity and discipline!

Hahaha! Oh, jesusan, you never fail to make me laugh! Your gift of eloquence is priceless! :) With your life experiences and your wonderful sense of humor, your dinner conversations must be worthy of publication!

I guess there’s no way I could replace sugar with other sweetener…do you think it’s possible to replace syrup with honey? You know…these look so dang good that I want them so badly…but a bit put off with the high ratio of sugar and butter…dang..I guess one just can’t have it all..

Hi Angie! You know, honey contains the same basic sugar units as table sugar. They both have virtually the same glycemic index and honey is actually higher in calories. So you wouldn’t be better off substituting honey for sugar, not from a calorie standpoint anyway.

We don’t even make these at home, since they are so easily available at the local sweetmeat shops – but if you like this recipe, I can send you some more recipes similar to this – I’m from Pakistan :) .. Most of our traditional desserts involve frying or cooking instead of baking, and use slightly non-traditional ingredients – like there is this chanay ki daal ka halwa where we use lentils, or there’s another halwa where we use semolina .. The halwa is a little bit softer, to be eaten with a spoon, but you can tweak the recipe to make fudge – which we call tikki’s or i used to call diamonds :) .. really yummy! .. I don’t have a lot of traditional desserts on my blog but your description makes me want to put a few :) ..

Hi Kiran! YES! I would LOVE some of your delicious recipes from Pakistan! Everything you mentioned sounds fantastic! Thank you so much for the offer and I’m looking forward to trying them. I’ll of course credit the recipes to you with a link to the homepage of your wonderful blog. Nice to meet you and thanks so much for visiting! – Kimberly

I love unusual desserts like this from other countries. Will have to try it. Nuts.com is a good place to order flours and nuts, etc; they even have ghee! And it doesn’t seem that unhealthy with all the protein from chickpeas in there. ;) Maybe I’ll make this next time I do Indian food.

Haha, yes, that’s exactly the way to go about justifying an otherwise artery-clogging treat! ;) I love this fudge-like dessert – so good – yes, you should definitely try it and be sure to let me know what you think!

Looks delicious, and your method and ingredients read very much like my mom’s classic recipes (I’m a Canadian with an Indo-Pakistani heritage). The only thing preventing me from trying this right away is the quantity of ghee. But hey, Indian/Pakistani sweets are unapologetically high in ghee/fat and high in sugar.

Can I clear up a misconception though…? Barfi is actually pronounced like Burfi – the “a” is actually a “short u” sound (think: tub, sun). And seeing as the Indian word is transliterated in English, it could very well be spelled with the u instead of the a. Makes it a tad more palatable for skeptical eaters, and makes an English-speaking eater seem a little more informed. Either way though, I was very impressed by your recipe (both the pictorial and the written) and your great pics!

Thanks for the compliment, I appreciate that. It’s true what you’ve said about the pronunciation, it just makes for more entertaining conversation for us English-speakers to ignorantly pronounce it as written. It’s silly, I know, but nevertheless good for a laugh :)

I like your dramatic description of this delicious barfi thank you very much .Today I was reading an old Urdu recipe book printed some fifty five years ago in Karachi. The author dedicated a full chapter to different kinds of Barfi !!!! Barfi made of eggs, Almonds, Pistachio, coconut, dates, Figs, Banana, Mango etc.etc. All recipes have one thing in common, that was she used a pinch of Saffron in every recipe of Barfi.

Hi, I just included an estimate in the recipe, about 1/4 teaspoon or a little less. Freshly ground has a much stronger, more robust flavor though and depending on the quality and freshness of your pre-ground cardamom you’ll need to experiment with it to know how much to add to the next batch.

Stumbled across this trying to identify an “Indian treat” left in the breakroom at work today. It very much resembled a peanut butter fudge in color with bits of nuts that could only be pistachio.

It did not taste nearly as sweet as the fudge my grandmother made, though, and reading this recipe explains why – the chickpea flour tempers the sweetness as well as adding a little protein and fiber. Grandmother’s fudge, of course, was made of butter, sugar, and baker’s chocolate or cocoa.

I tried this recipe twice one miserably failed attempt after another. the first time i made this recipe, i followed the time as described…3 to 4 minutes…etc. but it ended in a hardened crumbly mess before i could even get it out of the saucepan. but i made it the second time immediately afterwards since i was determined to make this delicious looking dessert and timing wise, not too long. this second time around, i made sure to cook no more than the minumum recommended timing: 3 minutes for the roasting of the chickpea flour, then adding the ghee and cooking that for 2 minutes, putting the flour/ghee into a bowl…it was still cooking and even changed to a darker brown in the bowl, sugar and water mixture i barely cooking it for 2 minutes before I added the flour/ghee mixture for another 1-2 minutes then added the pistachio and cardamon. this second time, i was able to put the mixture into the mold but it hardened immediately before i could put the pieces of pistachio on it. I believe this recipe is inaccurate somehow. or just plain bad. I made sure to read and look at the instruction pictures couple of times before I attempted it as I knew it was going to be fast action from one step to the next. The first time, I followed the time written, which seemed too long. And so the for the second attempt, I took less time cooking in each steps, but both attempts ended in waste. The mixture ended up super hard both times, and quickly. So I wonder….is the sugar too much? I have no other explaination.

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Unless otherwise stated, all images, content and recipes are original and are the sole property of Kimberly Killebrew, daringgourmet.com. No photographs or other content may be used without prior written consent.